Why does a brown cloud occur in Denver at a certain time of the year? When warm air is higher in the atmosphere, it traps cooler, denser air below and smog just sits in between them. Using bottles of colored hot and cold water, this phenomenon is compared to the opposite situation: when cold is above the hot. Use this in your meteorology unit to enhance learning about convection currents in the atmosphere.

Concepts

convection, density, pollution, the atmosphere, the scientific method

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Additional Tags

pollution, temperature inversion, scientific inquiry, convection, atmosphere, density, science

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Classroom Considerations

• This video is hosted on YouTube